From the late fourth century BC, Greek became the administrative script and
language of the new Macedonian rulers of Egypt. The Roman and Byzantine Emperors
retained Greek as the administrative script and language of Egypt, along with
the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, and its privileged position
ended only with the Arab conquest of Egypt in AD 639-642, following which Greek
was replaced by Arabic. The leading institutions of the age included the Museum
and its Library at Alexandria. Libraries may have
become a regular feature of civic life, if the comment of the Greek historian
Polybius in the 2nd century BC can be taken at face value, that 'it is possible
to assemble without risk and without difficulty information in books, simply
by taking the steps to reside in a town with writings in abundance and a library
at hand' (Book 12, 27).

Early Greek papyri - Greek books outside Egypt

In Egypt, Greek entered a world where writing had been in use for over 2,500
years, and where the 'House of Books' or library had
long been a part of religious life, and groups of books a part of elite possessions.
Conversely, by the fourth century, papyrus paper had probably been in regular
use for writing in the Greek world for over two hundred years, as it had been
for centuries across western Asia in the empires of Assyria and then Achaemenid
Iran. The earliest surviving depiction of a book-roll in the Greek world seems
to date after 500 BC (Legras 2002, 50, citing Henry Immerwahr 1964). A painted
Greek vase of about 490 BC bears a depiction of a youth reading from a scroll,
presumably of papyrus, beside a chest marked perhaps with the name of the composition
'Teaching of Chiron' (the vase is now preserved in the Berlin State Museums,
F 2322; for a photograph, see Legras 2002, 27). A woman is represented reading
on a water-jar (hydria) of about 475-450 BC (British Museum GRA E190, reproduced
in Legras 2002, 32). To date, only one papyrus earlier than Alexander the Great
has been found in Greece, a carbonised roll bearing compositions concerning
Orphic mysteries; it was found in 1964 in a Macedonian tomb at Derveni, near
Thessaloniki, and has been dated to the mid-fourth century BC, but it has not
yet been fully published (Legras 2002, 51-52).

Early Greek papyri inside Egypt

The earliest surviving Greek papyri from Egypt are thought to date to the late
fourth century BC, perhaps immediately after rather than before the conquest
of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC:

a papyrus roll from a Greek burial at Abusir, now preserved in the Egyptian
Museum, Berlin, inventory number 9875; it contains 250 verses from a play
called 'The Persians', by Timotheos of Miletus (about 450-360 BC); the preserved
part describes the Greek victory at the end of the Battle of Salamis (Legras
2002, 53-54 with illustration)

a short document on papyrus, from Saqqara, now preserved in Vienna; it preserves
a plea by Artemisia daughter of Amasis, asking for justice from the god Osirapis,
with a curse against her daughter's father for not supporting the burial,
asking that he perish on water or land, and not receive a burial himself (Legras
2002, 55-57 with illustration)

short document on papyrus, discovered in the Egypt Exploration Society excavations
of 1972-3 at Saqqara North, under the direction of Geoffrey Martin; it preserves
three lines giving a succinct order posted by the Macedonian military authorities,
perhaps in 331 BC, to prevent local looting following the occupation: "order
of Peukestos - let noone go farther, this is the property of a priest"
(Legras 2002, 64-65 with illustration); there are holes along the margins
where the papyrus had been nailed to a support for public view; Peujestas
is recorded as one of the generals remaining in Egypt when Alexander moved
on to the conquest of the remainder of the Persian Empire

Book copying and book-sellers in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt

The great quantities of Roman Period papyri discovered at Oxyrhynchus
include several accounts and letters referring to the book-trade, and reveal
the market for literary manuscripts, not previously visible in the written record
(Legras 2002, 152-153):

1. a letter from a man named Apollonios refers to delivery of chests of books
by a captain Heraklas from his son Apollonios junior at Alexandria (Papyrus
Oxyrhynchus VIII, 1153, 2nd century AD)

2. a private letter of about AD 170 includes two postscripts concerning copying
and opportunities for acquiring books (Papyrus Oxyrhynchus XVIII, 2192):

First postscript: 'Have copies made of Hypsicrates, 'Figures of comedy', books
6-7, and send them to me; according to Harpocration, they are among the books
of Polion, but other individuals must have them too; and he also has the prose
summarieis of Thersagoras, 'Myths of tragedy'

Second postscript: 'the book-seller (bibliopoles) Demetrios also has these
books according to Harpocration. I have written to Apollonides about sending
me some of my own books, that Seleukos himself is going to show you soon. If
you find any that I do not have, have them copied and send them to me. Diodoros
and his friends also have some that I lack.'

Such notes from a provincial town in the Eastern half of the Empire may be
compared with the epigram of Martial
a century earlier from Rome, the imperial capital.

The Library of Alexandria and other libraries of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt

The most famous library in Western history is the great library
of the Museum at Alexandria.

A second great library at Alexandria was attached to the temple of Serapis
(Serapeum). This may have been created in the third century BC, and contained
copies made in the great library of the Museum; its scope is uncertain, and
it seems to have been smaller than the Museum library, with a figure of 42,800
rolls cited (Legras 2002, 130). The Serapeum was closed as a pagan institution
in AD 391 by order of the Emperor Theodosius: the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts,
Moscow, preserves a fragment of an illustrated papyrus codex (book) of about
AD 400, with a depiction of the Christian patriarch on the ruins of the temple
(Legras 2002, 131, colour pl.14).

In the Greek-speaking world outside Egypt, libraries are attested at gymnasia
(centres of Greek education) at cities including Athens, Kos and Tauromenion
(Taormina, Sicily), but no library is mentioned for any of the gymnasia within
Egypt (Legras 2002, 102-105). This gap in the evidence contrasts with the data
on private ownership of books from Oxyrhynchus, cited above.